A further tightening of the already stringent asylum and immigration regulations is expected by civil liberties groups
Posted in General on 24. Jul, 2010
A further tightening of the already stringent asylum and immigration regulations is expected by civil liberties groups.A spokeswoman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said that Mr Straw was “opening a can of worms”. Mr Howard’s family came to Britain from Romania at the turn of the century.In July, the Home Secretary announced that teachers, hospital staff and benefits administrators will be expected to in- form on illegal immigrants. “Like many people in Britain, Michael Howard is descended from immigrants and so am I,” he added. Mr Lansley’s bland confirmation of their suspicions and implicit threat that immigration will become a party political football again has infuriated senior Labour party figures.Mr Straw said: “It is obscene that, of all people, Mr Howard, whose family directly benefited from liberal refugee laws should allow asylum and immigration to be used in political stunts.”Mr Straw emphasised that he himself had a maternal great- grandmother who was a German Jewish emigre to Britain. One negative perception was race.”Immigration, an issue which we raised successfully in 1992 and in the 1994 Euro-elections campaign, played well in the tabloids and still has the potential to hurt,” said Mr Lansley.Labour and immigrants’ rights groups have long maintained that Conservatives played the race card in election campaigns. But Jack Straw, Labour’s Home Affairs spokesman, said it was a legitimate response to an admission last week from a high-ranking Tory official that the Conservatives were planning to play the race card.
Andrew Lansley, director of research at Conservative Central Office, who retires next month, said John Major could still beat Tony Blair if the Tories harped on the public’s “negative perceptions” of Labour.
The Opposition’s plans to draw attention to Mr Howard’s Jewishness has caused mixed feelings in the Jewish community. LABOUR will attack any attempt by Michael Howard to raise race as an issue before the next election by emphasising that he is a Jewish Home Secretary whose own family benefited from Britain’s refugee laws. But the new policy accepts that this is merely a “starting point” for discussions with government.John Monks, TUC general secretary, said of the decision: “It is a very good start to Congress All the unions are showing a powerful mood of unity.”. At a meeting in Brighton, they conceded defeat to Blair-loyalist union chiefs, and dropped their insistence on writing in a figure for Labour’s minimum wage.Left-wing unions had been pressing for pounds 4.15 an hour. They will now go along with a TUC compromise that diminishes its minimum wage formula to the status of a “target”.A motion to conference certain to be approved on Wednesday – the day after Mr Blair addresses the unions – says: “Congress recognises that a Labour government will have the responsibility of fixing the level of the national minimum wage in the light of the economic circumstances prevailing at the time, following consultations with the social partners.”The unions’ role will be confined to participation in a Low Pay Commission that recommends a figure for the minimum wage that a Blair administration will be free to confirm or reject.The TUC retains its commitment to a statutory minimum based on 50 per cent of median male earnings, a formula that could produce a figure as low as pounds 3.60 an hour. Next month, the unions will be reduced from 75 to 50 per cent of the vote at party conference and their role in sponsoring MPs will be drastically changed.Yesterday’s change was brought about by two of Labour’s smallest affiliates – the Fire Brigades Union and the construction union Ucatt. We welcome the acceptance that a Labour government will set a national minimum wage and that unions will put their case.”We think this opens the way to a much more mature relationship between Labour and the unions : that the unions have one role and the Labour government has another.”Harriet Harman, Labour’s front-bench spokeswoman on employment affairs, added: “This is an important indication of the TUC preparing itself for when it will – together with the employers – have an important role working in partnership with a Labour government.”The down-grading of the unions’ influence to parity with the employers effectively ends more than 90 years of their “special relationship”.
The unions have accepted a substantial dilution in their “special relationship” with the party, and have effectively given up their right to determine policy.
A senior Blair aide said: “We think this is a very significant moment. The decision marks not only an end to a two-year wrangle over wages, but an historic realignment in relations between Labour and the unions. On the eve of the Trades Union Congress in Brighton, they accepted that it would be up to an incoming Blair administration to set a statutory floor on pay – not the unions. TRADES union leaders delivered a significant political boost to Tony Blair yesterday by agreeing not to put a figure on Labour’s proposal for national minimum wage. There may be a logic to this, but it’s not a perception that will be accepted by the public.”. But if it is supposed to be special and dramatic then surely the projects should all be ready by the year 2000? The implication seems to be 2002 or 2003 will be OK. THE visionaries and dreamers devising landmark buildings and other expensive projects to celebrate the Millennium don’t actually need to bother about the year 2000, the Millennium Commission has ruled, writes Catherine Pepinster.
If an art gallery here or a opera house there ends up with its last coat of paint being applied well into the 21st century, the Commissioners will still be happy. Insistence on meeting a year 2000 deadline is “pedantic” according to a spokesman.
The Commission’s laid-back attitude has surprised some of the developers bidding for funds, who are used to clients demanding tight deadlines. They warn that some celebration parties may have to be held in the middle of building sites.Peter Rogers, director of developer Stanhope, which is advising the Tate Gallery on its new Bankside building, said: “They have told us they don’t see the Millennium as being critical. Its supporters believe it could have a huge beneficial impact on health, pollution, and road safety. The Department of Transport has promised special help to enable it to cross trunk roads.. The rest of the money will come from local authorities and donations.The network of traffic-free cycle paths, traffic-calmed minor roads and carefully engineered urban cycle lanes will pass through almost every major population centre in the country. Viewers saw a cycle-shaped cheque for pounds 42.5m handed to the director of Sustrans, John Grimshaw, by the rock singer Meatloaf.